how two join and arrange two files together

[Peter Otten]

amrita at iisermohali.ac.in wrote:

>> Can you make an effort to express clearly what you want, preferrably with
>> a simple and unambiguous example?

> I want to join column of two different data file but i want that the
> entries will match (example i mentioned in my first mail, the position of
> ALA eill match) if its not matching then it will get printed as such.

Just say "No" if you mean it.

My best guess:

from collections import defaultdict

def merge(sources):
    blanks = [blank for items, blank, keyfunc in sources]
    d = defaultdict(lambda: blanks[:])
    for index, (items, blank, keyfunc) in enumerate(sources):
        for item in items:
            d[keyfunc(item)][index] = item
    for key in sorted(d):
        yield d[key]

if __name__ == "__main__":
    from StringIO import StringIO
    a = StringIO("""\
a alpha
c beta
d gamma
""")

    b = StringIO("""\
a one
b two
d three
e four
""")

    c = StringIO("""\
a 111
b 222
f 333
""")

    def key(line):
        return line[:1]
    def source(stream, blank="", key=key):
        return (line.strip() for line in stream), blank, key
    for m in merge([source(x) for x in [a,b,c]]):
        print "|".join(c.ljust(10) for c in m)